When can you make a council data protection breach claim? If you are eligible, what do you claim for? Is it free to claim, or do you need to pay something to a lawyer?
These are all important questions to answer. As a leading firm of data breach and consumer action lawyers representing thousands of clients for cases, we are well equipped to answer these questions for you. We are also well equipped to be able to represent you for a legal case, and we offer No Win, No Fee representation as well.
Here’s some advice for you about council data breach compensation claims and how we can help you today.
Can you make a council data protection breach claim?
You could be eligible to make a council data protection breach claim if a local authority, one of their employees, or an agent working on their behalf has breached the GDPR.
If the breach has arisen from some form of negligence, you may be entitled to claim compensation. You could be entitled to claim for breaches, leaks and even cyberattacks. If the breach event was preventable, that’s when we may be able to establish a case of negligence for you to be able to claim compensation.
Examples of where you may be eligible to claim could include:
- Your data being sent to the wrong person (by email or by post, perhaps);
- Your information being disclosed or made accessible to other people without your clear consent;
- Your data being exposed in a preventable cyberattack;
- Someone who can access your information abusing their right to do so and misusing your private information.
In a recent example of what appears to be a simple and avoidable data leak event, Powys County Council reportedly uploaded a letter to their website that contained the names and addresses of people on it. Once the issue was raised, the letter was taken down, but you can see how easily these kinds of breaches can take place.
It can easily happen, but the impact for the victims whose information is exposed can be substantial.
What can you claim for?
When you make a council data protection breach claim with us, we leave no stone unturned in our battle to get the best compensation pay-out possible for you. In most cases of this nature, you can be eligible to receive compensation for the distress caused by the loss of control of your personal information.
Generally speaking, the more you suffer, the more a case could be worth. When we look at data breach compensation amounts and values, we can look at factors such as:
- The nature of the data exposed or misused;
- How much is involved;
- Who data has been exposed to, or misused by;
- The personal impact for you, which can differ between different people.
You may also be eligible to claim for any losses and expenses associated with the breach as well. However, you don’t have to have suffered an actual financial loss or expense to claim as you can receive damages for the distress alone.
No Win, No Fee representation
We are proud to be able to offer No Win, No Fee representation for clients who pursue their council data protection breach claim with us.
This means that our clients are protected in the event that their case loses. We work this way because we are true believers in access to justice, and we also appreciate that most people wouldn’t want to claim if they had to pay fees if the case lost.
We also offer free and no-obligation advice, and you can speak to the team today here.